16th Battery

[JonathanS]

hi,

I'm currently researching my great grandfather's unit. He served as a gunner in the 16h Battery C.F.A. Originally part of the 4th Brigade, before the Somme the 16th was transfered to the 6th Brigade. My question concerns the units War Diaries. On the National Archives website the War Diary stops when the 16th battery left for France. From what I gather, it was rare for War Diaries to have even been kept in Canada. Does anyone know why they would have discontinued them when most other units began to keep theirs?

thanks,

Jonathan

[mordac]

Hi Jonathan:

The 16th Battery, CFA was moved from the 4th Brigade to the 6th Brigade in France, during one of the many reorganizations the Canadian gunners went through, in May 1917. They remained with the 6th Brigade until the end of the war.

You can follow the movements of the 16th Battery if you check the 6th Canadian Artillery Brigade's war diary here. It's not uncommon for individual batteries to not keep a war diary once they reached France, the brigade kept the diary. You'll notice this was also the case with the other 6th Brigade members the 15th, 22nd and 25th Batteries.

Garth